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Grand welcome to players in Sri Lanka

Colombo. One can take a lesson from Sri Lanka when it comes to respect for players. Despite the severe financial crisis, he left no stone unturned to honor his players. Sri Lanka gave a grand welcome to the Asia Cup winning cricket and netball teams on their return home and were taken in a procession from the airport to the capital Colombo on Tuesday.
Sri Lanka won the Asia Cup title for the sixth time by defeating Pakistan by 23 runs at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Bhanuka Rajapaksa, who won the ‘Player of the Match’ award for scoring an unbeaten 71 in the final, walked out of Bandaranaike airport saying it was a victory for the whole country. We can bring some smiles on the faces of the people of our country by what we have done. This is a big win for us.
Rajapaksa said about the country’s economic crisis that the world is now looking at us from a different perspective as a country. Bhanuka said that for years we could not even reach the title but the cricket fans did not lose faith in us. We faced tough challenges in the competition and now we want to continue this success in the T20 World Cup in Australia.
On Sunday, defending champions Asia’s netball team Sri Lanka defeated Singapore 63-53 to win the Asian title. With this victory, Sri Lanka had ensured its place in the 2023 Netball World Cup. The team defended its title won in 2018 while the 2020 championship was canceled due to Kovid-19.
The two Asian Champion teams were brought from the airport to the headquarters of Sri Lanka Cricket and the headquarters of the Netball Federation in two open double-decker buses. President Ranil Wickremesinghe said in a statement that fans were encouraged to show their support. They lined up on both sides of the road and welcomed the teams by waving the national flag. (IANS)

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